


The confounding flute

by talkswithwind



Category: Angela: Asgard's Assassin, Marvel (Comics)
Genre: F/F, Female Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-08
Updated: 2015-02-08
Packaged: 2018-03-11 05:37:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3316172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/talkswithwind/pseuds/talkswithwind
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The flute Sera gave Angela left an open-ended debt. One Angela is reluctant to close out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The confounding flute

Sera had left to hunt for more magic supplies. Angela still didn't understand what she needed, but Sera was always good about letting her know it was time to stock up. But that left her alone, and Angela kept thinking about a moment they had shared.

It was after a fight. Nothing unusual about that, it happened frequently. Only that time they had so thoroughly vanquished their enemies – well, Angela had – that they didn't need to move on immediately. Sera had unslung her lute, sang an Angelic victory song, and Angela had sat beside her to listen. The song made her happy. Seeing Sera enjoying the performance had made her happy. Sera setting the lute behind them and laying her head on Angela's shoulder with a happy sigh... had made her happy.

Angela's hand slid into her pack, fingers grazing the edge of the token of debt most on her mind: the flute. Angela still had no idea what the worth of it was, but was beginning to understand it meant more than physical. Perhaps a lot more.

The Asgardian revelation had been hard to take. Sera's quick wit and tongue had blunted her impulses towards violence at the idea, and then diverted her impulses to direct them at those who had perpetrated the deed. There was debt here, but Angela did not know how to unpick it, or to whom to assign it. She was owed... something.

Angela stared past the town below her, where Sera was shopping, to the hills beyond and the dual orange suns that were setting. Her fingers drew out the carved flute from its spot in her pack, the surface familiar. She blew a few notes on it, hard and untimed. She would never match Sera's skill with music, which made the token doubly hard to count. For a time she had thought repayment required learning to use it, but Sera had quickly rebuffed that idea.

But, reflected Angela, if I can make her smile the way she made me smile, that would be repayment for her lute playing.

It wouldn't repay the flute, but it would wipe a small debt from her ledger. Angela concentrated on her breathing, remembering some of the tune Sera had played, and began to learn how that would play on a flute. She continued, occasionally remembering that happy time and the head on her shoulder, until a familiar head began to walk back up the long hill.

* * *

I found Angela where I left her. She probably hadn't moved the entire time I was away. That hunter instinct of hers brought her a stillness that I have a hard time matching. Generally when whatever mission we're on requires that kind of quiet, I go somewhere else for a while and let her work alone. Today, her tails were pretending to be squirrels in the trees, creating movement to distract the eye from the pool of quiet that was Angela.

I felt... a lot towards Angela. She rescued me from that pious hell I had been trapped in, assisted me in getting rid of the body I hated, and let me help her wherever I could. I owed her more than she knew I owed, and selfishly I wasn't going to tell her that. I'm not as good of an Angel as she is.

That may be part of why she keeps me around. I'm OK with that.

“I got what I needed,” I said to her as I walked up.

She turned to face me, not moving anything but her neck, and smiled. “I'm glad.”

That was a smile she only gave me. It had only shown up a short time ago, but I treasure it. “You had your thinking face on. What's on your mind?” I said as I set my pack next to her perfectly packed one.

She paused briefly before answering, “The nature of debt.”

“Deep thoughts, then. Anything I should know?”

She gave up stillness and stood in an Angela-smooth motion, her tails giving up the trees to go slithering through the grass. “Not all of it can be repaid.”

I crossed my arms and faced her squarely. “This we know. The goal is to get as close to zero as we can before we pass on.”

She stared at me a while, face unreadable. Like it was ever readable. Well, sometimes I could read it, but this wasn't one of those times. “Thank you for your music,” she said at last.

I hadn't really played in days, so where that came from confused me. Deep thoughts indeed. Deep thoughts that made me hope. “You are welcome. Don't think this gets you out of finding a spot to camp tonight.”

* * *

Sera fell in behind Angela. Angela felt it was the right spot for her. That or beside, but the trail was not wide enough for two abreast. Sera had given her time to become less bad with the flute. In time, maybe they could play to each other. That would make her happy.

The flute-token was still confusing and strange, but in this small way Angela felt she could repay a little of what she had been given. She hoped Sara would stay long enough to be repaid, at least a little.


End file.
